Give my 12a housings to Dave and move on to the next big thing the Toyota Lexcen

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ben

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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2009 10:50 pm

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Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:41 pmPosts: 5591Location: LA

I liked your build so much I put it up on the blog. Hope you don't mind. It's the quality of the work plus the careful explanation and accompanying photos. A really great lesson for anyone interested in restoration!
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/blog/20 ... azda-rx-3/

Minor update... still aiming to have all front end repairs completed by end of year and possibly paint the engine bay. Just like the opposite side Im repairing a spare cowl section I had. Very fiddly work making corner section to fit. Pic 2 Rust cut out from cowl piece. You'll notice I've traced the patch onto the car for trimming, much easier than trying to do other way around.

Sand blasted the reverse side.. trial fitting trim before tacking

Tacking the rest of corner into place, like welding tissue paper ! Trial fitting trim again. Will finish welding corner, clean up welds on patch, then will be blasted ready for fitment in the next week or so.

Before I can wax/ fish oil front end repairs I need to finish work around front end which includes sill panels. Checking them out, was originally going to replace them but they arent too bad. Just need to replace front corner and part of sill. If you windscreen corners have rusted there is a good chance that the section in front of the sill (corner) will; be rusted as well. As you can see they actually dont look bad and I could just weld up the 2 small holes however this will be a problem spot in future unless cut out and replaced. More work but a better repair. They dont look like they were primed from Mazda either.

Pic 2 gave the rear quarter a quick sand with the DA, someones plugged a rust hole with bog, will fix that as well once front is done. (Hole is in center of photo covered with bog)

Rest of sill is still in factory paint, ran over it with DA sander... no real surprises which is good ! Since I thought the engine bay may be ready for paint towards the end of year I had a sample batch mixed.

I asked Rotary Lover regarding the original colour and he confirmed Aurora White, he mentioned there was also some green in the colour (was hoping it wasnt a bright white). When looking up the codes at the paint shop and was shown the colour chart, the white looked more like an awful green ! I then gave Restoremaz a quick call and he confirmed there was green in the colour as well, he suggested I take a sample and compare to an original section on car. To my relief the colour was a very close match once dried ! I wanted to get the colour before the shop closes at end of year. Its a creamy white with a light hint of green. Will spray a panel next week to see how it looks.

Im going for a single stage Sikkens paint rather than use clear over base. Ive been checking out restored cars lately and COB doesnt look right and seems to give the paint alot more depth which Mazda's never had. I think Ive spent about $500 -600 (trade -sum) on paint prep products, epoxy primer, polysurfacer, Hi Fill, reducers, hardeners, and multiple grades of blocking paper. Not sure how people get paint jobs for $2000 because that doesnt include the colour either ! When you take labour and rust repairs into account I cant see how paint can be done for $5 - 6K unless the body is 110% immaculate by my standards Thats all for now............

Yes COB is clear over base, in other words you have a base colour that is coated in a clear coat. Most new cars are COB, most old cars are painted in a solid colour paint with no clear coat. Best way to tell is if you polish your car and the colour rubs off on the polishing cloth then your car is painted in a Single Stage paint (or refered to as a solid colour)

Further to that old 60's/70's cars are most likely painted in Acrylic not 2 part (normally consists of paint and hardener) Single Stage paint. The newer paints are miles ahead of the old paint systems,and I doubt most paint shops would bother with the old acrylic system. From what Ive seen and this is my opinion only, to get a similar finish to the original paint, use a modern Single Stage paint for added protection and a lasting finish. You could use COB but you may need to add a flattening agent to take some of the depth out of the finish.... thats were you'll need a good painter who really knows what there doing.... this is also is way out of my depth !

Thanks.. a few more pics.. it must like watching paint dry for you guys

Hmm not sure about painting the car myself, I'll probably do the engine bay and boot when there ready.. . really not sure about doing the entire car. Like Dave mentioned in his build Im afraid of runs as well. I'd hate to be sitting there with razor blades removing runs. Painting is the easy bit, before I'd consider anything like that I'd have to build a temporary booth with fans ad filters to keep crap and insects out of the paint. Not only that I'd have to paint all the panels separate to the shell. Im told white is a hard colour to spray because its difficult to see to see the wet edge on 2nd and 3rd coats. You need really good lighting. If you dont you'll either end up with an uneven coat or you'll spray the coat to wet and end up with runs everywhere. For an amateur there'll be lots of razoring runs, blocking, repainting, blocking , buffing etc etc .... Alot of work to get a decent result. BUT you might get lucky and do it right the first time

Back to the pillar.. running welds on tissue paper, welding my fabricated corner to the replacement cowl section.

Pic 1, sandblasted, welding a couple of pin holes that I missed (sandblasting reveals EVERYTHING!)and trial fitting the panel. When you have rust I think Ive proven time and time again that wire wheels are a waste of time if you dont want rust to return. Ive had to play with the shape a little to get a decent fit. Pic 2, welding is almost done just need to weld cowl to pillar when there is better lighting. Im happy with the stainless trim fit as well. Plug welds have been done and finished as well. Hmm maybe I should have brazed and bogged it as well, would have been alot faster and you'd never see it under the paint

Well it'll be sad when the pillars are finished, wont know what too do next. Will clean up inside the cowl, and prepare for fitting the box section covers. I'll prime the inside of the cowl before that happens and apply the KBS epoxy over the inside of the welded joins. Im not happy with the KBS epoxy around the back window. Will be removing it and just spray normal epoxy primer. I think its too smooth for paint the adhere to properly, something Im not willing to risk.So much more to do, you'd really have to try hard to find a bigger piece of junk

Umm I think I having more than enough to do with this one without looking at yours !

This is what i use to clean up the primer prior to plug welding, a spot weld drill bit. I cooked the MIG gun again and spent today repairing it again. I'll be throwing this one out and buying a decent MIG shortly. Thinking of the BOC gases rebadged Kempi 170P or the American Lincoln 180c. The gun head has overheated and opened up which wont allow the copper tips to screw in securely. Nothing that a hammer and tap and die set cant fix

Blasted and primed the little triangular bits for welding. Also spent the day blasting out the cowl. This car isnt a total basket case, its very common for these cars to rust through the firewall from inside the cowl, however this car is completely clean around here. The original primer has been feathered as it was in good condition. I blasted it more so to remove the primer that previous owners applied.

Another shot inside the cowl, completely clean. Some parts are in metal others parts are still coated in the factory sealer but feathered and blasted thin for better primer adhesion. I also blasted the windscreen flange, completely clean as well. Pic 2 More plug welding before welding on box sections. They have been welded from the opposite side.

Trial fitting the box sections for welding, they still need to be primed.

What a mission this bit was, I had planned on priming inside the cowl however it took forever to clean up the blast media. The stuff just goes everywhere, you think you get it all, move the car and then more falls out, got there eventually. I've treated the area and rubbed everything down using a scuff pad. Before priming will go over everything with a scuff pad and thinner to clean everything up. Wouldnt hurt to go over everything with more seam sealer either.

Thats it for now, if you havent guessed A pilars are done, they just need to be primed and a little filler work......

Last edited by gypsy on Sun Apr 04, 2010 4:59 pm, edited 2 times in total.

MrLeigh post up some pics of your build, we need more Mazda's here both rotary and non rotary models. Mazda have made some interesting cars prior to the rotary revolution.... t600, k360 and I'd love to see a Mazda 1000 coupe build posted up here as well.... fingers crossed !

I wasnt going to post this part up until the nosecone was complete but since JDMRX2 wanted some ideas on fixing bodylines I thought I'd through this up.... JDMRx2 pay attention to the lower apron repairs, there's no reason the same cant be applied to your guards.

Bought this nosecone a while back, looked OK was aware that it had a little filler here and there. Wasnt perfect but looked alot better than others I'd seen. I picked up a few ripples that were obviously bogged over, but hey could have been a lot worse. What better way than to brush up on some metal work skills. What your going to see is the reason that any good panel beater will insist on having a part stripped bare before quoting.

OK, so i didnt expect this much bog.... not looking good.

What the hell is going on here, there must be 2 litres of sacred white stuff here, if only it was worth something !

Now this is where it starts with the front apron. What the seller forgot to tell me was that this is a homolgation special nosecone that has seen active duty in the Dakkar Rally, Acropolis Rally, Rally Down Under, and was then shipped to Finland for the special ice stage These nosecones are pretty rare, I though long and hard whether I was taking away from the nosecone by removing its competition scars.

Now for the serious stuff, need to get rid of that long gouge, first step is to weld up the rip in the apron.

Now that the rip is gone I planish out the gouge with hammer and dolly.

More hammer and dolly work to get the shape right without all the filler. Pic 2 Im working the apron over a post dolly, I decided against separating the apron from the nosecone. It was a bit awkward working with such a large piece on my own.

More damage that will be covered in another update. The center part of the apron will be punched out with a contoured cold chisel over a sand bag, the lower apron will be straightened over the post dolly without removing any of the factory lines. Ive seen to many badly repaired 10a aprons where all the factory character lines are worked out flat.... thats a lazy and poor effort.

The apron is looking alot better but still needs some fine tuning, Im going to make a flipper out of some hardwood to finish off any minor dings in the apron. The rear bracket will be removed at some point to get a little more shape back around the "stepped area" of the apron. A job for another day. Pic 2 removing some minor dings with a rounded timber chisel that had the tip snapped off somehow. This is a similar method used to work out minor flaws in stainless trims, only the tooling is alot smaller !

Apron is pretty much done, just needs minor tweaking after i have it blasted clean inside and out. Now for the nosecone.

There would have been close to 5mm of bog around part of the area that meets the guard. Yes it was that out of shape. Pic 2 welding up some old damage.

Cut off the broken mounting point, and welded on a bit of scrap. Weld had been worked nice and flat... no grinding need.

Here Ive made a template from the opposite side to do the final finishing. Pic 2, turned out pretty good, Im happy. With a little bit more work I probably could have made the weld completely invisible.

Back to the nosecone, all the bog gone now to get it looking right. What you cant see is close to a 2 inch crack where the nose cone flange meets the radiator panel.

Again tracing the opposite side to get the shape right. The section in pic 2 was out of wack by 5mm in the center. Needs to be pulled out without loosing the correct shape.

Making a plywood cutout of the profile so that I can tap it back to the correct profile. Ply is approx 10mm thick.

A pic from the reverse side, cone has been tapped back to right shape, in the center you can see that the metal has been stretched and will need to be shrunk at that point to keep the correct profile. Pic 2 welding up the cracked edge to give the cone back its rigidity in that area.

Now that cone is nice and solid and not wobbly in that area we can begin to work out the damage. 1st priority is lines, shape then dents... well thats how i work anyway.

Last pic of the cone, I constantly check the profile with the ply to keep things in check. Pic 2 almost there, again need to make my hardwood flipper as I dont want to mark the metal with the metal flipper, which means filing more metal away. Pic 2 I was getting impatient as I blocked up the oxy but persisted without cleaning it. Because of this I was running higher pressure than normal and blew a hole when trying to repair a small crack in the metal. Apparently I was huffing and puffing all day when I went out with the other half. No big deal really just really annoyed the crap out of me.

Once I finish repairing that side of the cone and weld back the attachment lugs, It'll be sent off for a good blasting inside and out before completing any minor repairs. All thats left is the odd dent, not even that really.

Pic 1 drilled out the rear bracket in order to reshape the dip. This part of the apron had had previous work and was too flattish and blended compared to the right side. What I've done is mark where I want the middle of the curve to start, and where I want it to flatten out as it approaches the indicator. The correct shape isnt really flat and is a complex shape to get 100% right. Its alot of effort for something that will barely be seen. Pic 2 I heavily beat the area that requires a dip. This does 2 things. It stretches the metal which can be pulled up to form a nice sloping gradient, and 2 it gives me extra metal to flatten out the lower area as it approaches the indicator. Im using a a hammer with a high crown to smooth out the reverse curve.

Next Pic doesnt really show what has been achieved but there is now a greater sloping area that matches the opposite side. It still needs a little more dolly work to smooth it out. The initial problem was that the sloping area was almost level with the oil cooler cut out section and didnt match the opposite side. Its now a pretty close match to the opposite side.

Moving on to the right side of the apron below the oil cooler cutout. It looks like its hit a log or barrier while parking, I like to think its from its rally days The oil cooler cutout had a big bow which you can just see from my previous post which I've pulled out using muscle power. Pic 2 more bog.

Marked out some of the basic repairs that need to be done, there is also a long crease from running over something. Too much muscle was used and now it has a high spot. Pic 2 stripped bare, far from straight, now showing 35 years of picking up groceries.

Hammering out all the damage over a plank of soft wood using a hammer with a high crown. If I used a flat faced hammer I'd have to work out all the hammering impressions, unnecessary work. Pic 2 planishing the apron straight without damaging the lower crease, looking nice.

Hammering flat the high area around the cutout, in order to do this I had to bend the flanges for access. Pic 2 Im tapping them back to shape after the repair is done.

The centre of the apron had been bent back close to 1/4 of an inch. Pic 1, defining the line where I'll restamp it over a block of pine. The pine is soft enough to allow the metal to bend in the opposite direction each time I strike it. Ive used a cheap cold chisel that I rounded off on a bench grinder. Pic 2 is the end result. I flat crease that is well defined without having a sharp impression, just like Mazda made them.

Next pic you can clearly see that the centre is no longer pushed back, you can also see the remnants of the damage. The outer detail on both sides are still kinked. Before I straighten out the obvious creases that begin from the centre I need to stamp out the kink from the outer dressed areas. Lines are always worked out first, without correct lines you have sh!t. Pic 2 using the same method as before on both sides of the apron.

Next 2 pics are the end result. Pic 1, nice defined centre with ALL detail intact, what was left of the crease was wroked out with hammer and dolly in under a 2 minutes. Getting the lines correct relieved alot of the damage without having to do an awful lot. If you look closely you can see a minor scratch just above the raised area. I could tap it out and file it off with a small nicolson file, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Marks like that will be invisible once the undercoat primer is sprayed. Last shot is of the completed repair.... looks good !

There may be one more minor update on the nosecone, Ive finished planishing the damaged side of the nosecone. All thats left to do is weld up the edge where it was previously cracked to get a better finish, and then have it blasted clean. Blasting may reveal the extra pin dent here and there but all the major damage is now gone. After thats done, I'll need to weld on the studs on the damaged side when I get time to dumby fit the panel to the car. At present thats a real pain with all the crap around it where its stored.

I have more recent photos to upload but dont have time at present to write the text !

Ok so now JDMRX2 has paid attention and just read that post twice!!
Sensational work mate. You are spot on, I can use that method to put the body line back in my guard!
I must say that the way that you have turned a rough-as nose cone back into a beauty - minus the 5KG of bog - is trult inspirational.

Thanks for taking the time to put up that post, I appreciate your effort.
Cheers,
Benn.

I was looking forward to having the engine bay painted but like always there are set backs.These old cars are rust traps, the only thing that comes to mind that is worse than a rusty Mazda is a rusty Datsun ! Hopefully the engine bay wont be delayed by too much. I want to fix the front part of the sills before spraying primer around and inside the front cowl and welding on the front end box covers. Ive also bought white paintable stone guard for the front wheel wells. Anyway the sills turned out to be a little more involved hence the delay in painting the engine bay.....

Using the spot weld drill bit to clean up the metal for plug welding. Pic 2 using the weight of the front strut to hold the little panel. Zero gap = zero holes when welding ! Had to bend the panel a little to make room for the MIG gun.

Blasted the metal kick panel welds and sealed them. Tidied things up ready for the box section to go over the top. Before that happens we'll use some seam sealer around all the inner joins. We dont want more rust or water leaks ! One is the brushable type the other is sort of like glue that you squish to shape.

Dumby fitting the other box, so tempting just to skip the prep and go for it ! The front corner was cut off, you guessed it, it was badly pitted. You can see the pin holes in the front part of the sill. Where there are minor holes you'll find pitting and rust scale on the reverse side. I had originally intended to replace the sills and have a set of sedan units that I was going to modify. I then was looking for coupe ones, I was offered a new pair for $300 a while back and in way regret not buying them as I didnt think I really needed them. Im not going to cry about it, the sills arent that bad to warrant removing them. the right side is pretty good aside from the front section.

A close up, its pointless trying to weld them up when they are rusty on the reverse side. Pic 2 a sill panel that I made up a while ago that will be used for the repairs.

A clean replacement corner that will be used. Ive cut a section from the spare sill I made and marked it out ready for shaping the front lip that will fit inside the corner. Ive run a flap disk to curve the piece of timber so that I dont distort the patch during shaping.

Clamped in place and being shaped using a cold chisel and hammer.

More shaping and marking were I will cut for the bottom nut that holds the bottom of the guard.

There we go, took about 15minutes to shape. I couldnt cut up a good set of sedan sills. It was faster to make a replacement as well.

This is what I am making (right side pictured). Pic 2 you can see Ive previously welded up the odd hole. This was done 12 months ago. Now that I have a greater section to work with I'll blast again and reseal. I shone a torch inside the sills to ensure I removed all bad metal, the rest of the sill is as it left Hiroshima 37 years ago.

Dumby fitting repair section, not bad... will tweak a little more when I cut it down to its final shape but Im happy with the result. Also if you look hard you'll see a rust hole that I was unware of.... will fix that as well. Alots of dirt and mud that needs to come off.

I checked the sill as best I could, the section under the door is 100%. The bit that runs under the quarter is a different story although looks worse that what it actually is. This is a common area for Rx3s to rust especially when the bottom drain becomes blocked. The water is channelled from the sides of the rear windscreen vents to this spot where it just sits and sloshes about. There was no way that this would have rusted again, the previous owners filled it with fibreglass !

Made a clean cut in the quarter panel to open up the area and only leave good metal behind. It looks bad but is actually very easy to fix. Ive already mostly made the outer skin and the rusty sill section. The bottom and top sections of the sill panel are solid... go figure I will cut out the horizontal section where you see the 2 factory holes and only replace that part. There is alot of mud and dirt in there, what you see on the floor is only half of it ! As always I will vaccum it all out, blast treat and seal prior to welding the repair in. This will be done at a later time as Im concentrating on the front end. If this was really bad I would have removed the entire left sill without thinking about it. Thankfully the right side is good... go figure again... The upside to all this is that I can get to areas where I normally couldnt.

Back to the front part of the sill, Ive cutout the rust and welded in a repair.... a little awkward to do... there wasnt enough room between the ground the sill and MIG gun length , the rotisserie would have made it a breeze.... Need to finish that off. Welds will be cleaned, blasted and sealed before the repair is welded on. I'll paint some seam sealer on the inside to keep the moisture out over the repair. Pic 2, finishing off the kick panel area prior to sealing the sill. Temporary screws are used to bring the 2 panels together so there is no gap for welding. The seam areas will be brushed with the rubber sealer pictured above just as the factory did.

By the end of the week I hope to finish the front of the sill and around the kick panel area. Will them have to repeat this on the right side. After that we may have some engine bay paint if nothing else is found. This project is really out of control.

I didnt need to support the nosecone to straighten it out. The repair was mostly done on the orange panel stand you see in some of the pictures. The nose cone is solid enough structurally to not flop around as you work the metal. Remember you generally use lots of light taps when straightening out metal panels. You want to move the metal in very small steps so there is no metal bashing so to speak. To stamp out the center of the cowl/ valance panel I had the panel on the concrete in the backyard with a brick on either side to support the ends. I then placed a piece of soft pine under the center part that I restamped with a brick bolster. You can see the brick and pine wood in some of the photos.... Yes extremely high tech I know

If it was the front guard I would have had to support it somehow, even though I've straightened out most of my left guard that had huge amounts of filler by having sit on top of a bench. To do the finer smaller dents I'll need to secure it to the car.

This will be the final update for year, believe or not I need a rest from looking at what is suppose to be a Mazda Rx3.... It looks like I wont reach my goal of having the front end painted this year Not all is lost... I was hoping to complete front end repairs on the right side at over the weekend, it was too much work for a 3 day period. Funny how before I start I think, yeah thats achievable in that time frame. There is always alot more more work than what you see before your eyes. Prep for welding was the big time killer as well as fixing the replacement kick panel. The time spent was worthwhile and made welding a breeze, there was lots of it as well !

About a month ago I went down to see Rick from Mazbitz for a replacement right kick panel and to grab the correct nuts and bolts for the engine compartment. Unfortunately he didnt have a complete kick panel and I didnt want him to destroy a hand full of good parts so I was happy with what he had even if it needed a little work. Its good to know that Im not the only Mazda nut case around, someone had bought the front cowl to fix there own car which is a big job as well.

I decided to redo the right kick panel as I wasnt entirely happy with the upper end fit. The left side was perfect, the right side always bugged me. Since I had to fix the front of the right sill it was the perfect opportunity to redo the repair except this time Im pleased with the result. Pulling off the kick panel also made the sill repair easier... a win win in my opinion ! What you see here is a solid 3 days work, had a good breakfast then worked solid through till around 5ish..... thats a lot of hours that photos dont show...

I had some spare sill off cuts lying around for the right side, no need to fabricate like the left one. unfortunately unpicking panels panels for use takes a loooooooooooong time. Take note of the second shot of pointy end of the sill panel. This ones clean, wait till you see the one of the car.

Kick panel removed and separating the front of the sill panel from the door frame. Note how clean it looks aside from a couple of pin holes. This is better than most cars !

Rust scale seeping out from where the 2 parts are separated. Front corner cut away.... lots of pitting, if your A pillars are rusted dont kid yourself, this is what you'll find in this lower corner section. I could have brazed it like most but dont want hassles once its painted... this car is for keeps.

Front of sill cut away, lots of crap in there that I'll blow out, mostly mud. The front of the sill, compare with the replacement.... There is basically no factory protection on these parts.

Another angle of the front sill and corner section... shocking I know, but most wouldnt bother. Made a nice home for some wasps nest !

Straightening out the pillar flange on my hundred thousand $ machine... Seriously though, tapping the flange straight which became not so straight during the kick panel removal process. Pic 2 dummy fitting the repaired kick panel... fits good, still needs a little tweaking.

The top section of the kick panel needs adjusting... the top is not straight from factory, it changes direction 3 times. As Im using new and old parts it was easier and cleaner to fabricate a new top section. Pic 2 cutting off the top with some tin snips.

Some replacement corners I have that will be used, dummy fitting the replacement sill section.

More trial fitting,measuring and marking of front sill.

Checking MIG nozzle access prior to cutting, no point in cutting in such a way then discovering you cant weld in position. Will weld a tiny section from inside the sill.... Pic 2 getting ready to blast the inside clean.

Stripped back the rest of sill, no nasty surprises. Only one little hole towards the back corner. Will weld this up and remove the little panel in the bottom rear corner of door jamb to ensure its all clean. Only coupes have this little panel. Rust repair I did on front right guard... not sure where the pic of the guard went showing it mostly repaired without all the bog ! Needs a little more work, almost there with the guard.

Right guard almost done, rusted in the same spot as the right side. Guards will be fitted to car to get gaps I want before fitting inner guard panels. 3 shrinks you see on the inside was part of the straightening process, mainly to remove excess metal that caused some "oil canning".

Finished plug welding the right rail to the floor, there are more plug welds than factory spot welds. They are approx 3/4 -> 1 inch apart. I like to run the MIG hot when plug welding to get good weld penetration and flat welds which means there isnt much grinding during the clean up stage. Area will get cleaned up so will look nicer. Pic 2, Inner sill blasted clean, no holes

Sill section blasted clean and treated.

Treated the inner and sealed sill...

Cleaned and sealed the inner panel, also blew out all the crap will compressed air. Pic 2 fabricating the top of the kick panel.

The fabrication process... youve seen it before here..

The end result, the little step.... Trail fitting for cutting..

The top has a shallow V so cut a slot, ready for trimming with tin snips. Pic 2 all clamped in place, looking really good with outer box cover

Cleaned up and treated the inside of the kick panel. Will get a good scrub with thinner and scuff pad prior to sealing. Pic 2 undid the tacks and started plug welding, The little flat face self tapper is used to keep the 2 panels together during welding. Once done will be removed and hole welded up.

You can see the top plug weld is just coming off cherry red. Pic 2 is of the reverse side, they are nice looking welds with penetration... this isnt going anywhere !

Priming the inside wheel arch flange before welding, marked out and cleaned up with spot weld drill bit where the plug welds will go. This was all marked out when previously dummy fitting panel.

There you go the bare metal lines up with the holes for plug welding... see what a little prep does, makes the job 10x easier. Pic 2 everything clamped into place, hydraulic ram used for hand pressure in center of kick panel to stop panel distorting.

The first of about 50 plug welds... so far so good. Pic 2 marking out for welding the top triangle pieces. The screw driver is used to punch down any small gaps before welding.

All done, you didnt expect a photo of each weld did you ! Pic 2 photos from inside the cabin... all very niiiiiiice

Small triangle piece is welded on, some idiot forgot to turn the gas on for the first one after a small break. Pic 2 showing off the welds on front door flange that holds kick panel.

More photos of completed work...

Next part begins........ front of sill is all prepared, a little more trimming and we're right to go..

Once welding is complete will clean up and blast welded areas, then shoot some fresh primer where needed. Then will brush welded seams with Sikaflex and we're done....... will look nice when finished. Oh yeah, plenty of fish oil or wax will be sprayed in these cavities to help repel any future moisture from attacking the metal.

Well thats all Im putting up for now, may need to cut down on the detail a little, takes too long to post up. Next post will be after car is painted and put together

Last edited by gypsy on Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:28 am, edited 2 times in total.